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PayPal has announced a limited release of PayPal Mobile, which enables you to send money via your cell phone.

Read more about it here (PayPal) and here (PC Pro)

roar at roarweb dot com

The Berenstain Bears has entertained kids since 1962 and can still be seen on TV stations like PBS in the US and Treehouse here in Canada.

My kids love the shows.

As parents we’ve found the episodes to give some teachable moments to discuss with our kids and we normally do not even worry about them watching TV if these are the shows they are watching. They are normally “safe” shows.

Unfortunately there are exceptions. Or at least one exception which have lead to a small nightmare for our family. After hearing another mother tell me today that she rushed to turn the TV off when realizing what was happening I decided it was worth writing about.

Berenstain Bears is no longer a safe show in our house. The kids still watch them, but my youngest ask me to stay with them at the beginning of every show to make sure it is not the “Green Eyed Monster”.

It all started just before Halloween last year. My son, 4 1/2, who never had been afraid of anything, was watching Berenstain Bears while I tried to get some household activities out of the way.

Suddenly I hear him screaming. I rush back to the living room, thinking he must have hurt himself, and find him sitting on the sofa - shivering! His sister, 3 years older, who had watched the show with him was trying to comfort him.

I’m not sure how the producers screen the content for these episodes. In this case I think they must have forgotten to look at the impact of the show on the kids and what this actually mean to us as parents.

For some reason this episode made a lasting impact on my son. The topic was “envy” and Sister , as far as I understand, was having a dream about envy in for of a Green Eyed Monster.

My son no longer dears to go to his room on his own, even a request for him to walk 12 feet to get his shoes results in the “But daddy, I am scared” response. Even after nearly 6 months this is an issue. My son requires to be able to see me (or mom) t be able to go to sleep.

The bottom line is that he is really scared. For some reason this episode hit his imagination hard.

We talk about these things with our kids, and have tried to explain that it was a movie and that the Green Eyed Monster is not real but pretend. It doesn’t matter. As you might imagine this has turned our lives quite a bit upside down.

As a parent I did not expect this from a Berenstain Bear episode. While I still believe it is a good show, I’m thinking they failed us as parents by releasing this episode.

This week they showed the episode again. My son was at daycare. They were watching TV. That night he hardly slept - neither did his mom (Thanks Dear!).

This blog entry will be e-mailed to Treehouse, PBS and Berenstain Bears with a request that this episode will be pulled. As a parent, my expectation is that the Berenstain Bears will continue to entertain and give us teachable moments - and I hope they will remove this “nightmare” episode.

roar at roarweb dot com

Now you can run Windows XP on a Mac.

I wonder if that will change the customer experience???

roar at roarweb dot com

The HD and Blu-ray DVD format discussion debate will likely go on for a while. Each format seems to have its advantages.

To help, or take advantage of (depending how you look at it), customers who will face a period of frustration with competing systems, LG has now promised a dual player system. Read about it here.

Problem partially solved!?

roar at roarweb dot com

An IT Business Edge e-mail showed Web 2.0 as a KEY ISSUE.

The e-mail list links to articles like Online onslaught: Upstart companies disrupt the market for business software, From Bubble to Breakthrough and

Creating real business value with Web 2.0 by ZDNet’s Dion Hinchcliffe — “I run into a fair number of people who are skeptical about the actual business value of Web 2.0. Sure, they usually agree it’s a terrific new movement in online software that encourages social collaboration, two-way use of the Web, services that are open and repurposable, Web-based applications, and more. But can you build and grow a real business with these ideas?”

Great reading! I really enjoyed the FindTech Insight Keyword search feature. It produced a long list of web 2.0 reference articles. I especially liked the article comment/intro that said:

Many people are still struggling with established phenomena like blogs and wikis, so why spend time on the more esoteric concepts of Web 2.0 like “architectures of participation?” This writer, although rejecting “New-Age-y” visions of Web 2.0, provides some strikingly unpractical reasons why it matters.

roar at roarweb dot com

Sxore goes beta:

This good news from Sxore was posted on February 16th. At that point I chose not to write about it. Why? Because I feel Alpha testers should have been given this knowledge before it was made public!

Maybe not a big deal you might say. You are right. But sometimes it is the small things that makes a difference!

Today I received an e-mail from Sxore and decided to give it a few lines. This e-mail was sent to those of us who subscribes to the sxore development list. Attached was 7 documents. My initial test feedback, dated December 15th, was among these.

In December, after testing sxore, I uninstalled the alpha version from my blog. It had a few bugs that I could not live with while waiting for them to get fixed. Good thing I did - today was the first time I heard from them since a “thank you for your feedback” e-mail came in mid December.

While I’m planning to give sxore another try in the near future, there are a few process issues I’d like to look at with regards to their test program. The bottom line is that I feel there was a few steps missing:

• Ongoing feedback to testers is important: We’re more likely to continue to test if we hear from you!
• Tell us BEFORE you launch the next phase: That way we can be ready - and even help you spread the word through writing about it! [Note: The attachments shows that they sent out an announcement on Feb 16th - but I never received it! And I think they should have told us BEFORE it was posted on their site!]
• Help us help you! If we had know BEFORE and been able to download and launch the BETA before it was publicly available, Sxore would have had a series of blogs to point new users to. This would have given each of us some exposure - a bit for each individual blog, lots for sxore!

We believe in providing legendary customer service and are looking for creative, team-oriented stars who work brilliantly, meet deadlines and live to innovate.

I did not find Sxore able to live up to this Sxip quote. Personally I look at the small things when looking at Information Technology companies. And customer service processes are very important to me.

If they can’t get a simple customer service process right, how can I then trust them to get their code and functionality right?

Hmm, I wonder if the job of Product Manager for Sxore is still available???

roar at roarweb dot com

I think the latest Microsoft TechNet mailer show that they don’t understand the new realities of the “conversation“.

I recently received a marketing piece for TechNet Flash from Microsoft Canada. I looked at the copy on the front and thought “Wow, they just don’t get it!”

The copy read:

Some people believe it is who you know that gets you ahead.

When I opened the piece I saw that it wasn’t as bad as I first thought:

Members of TechNet Flash believe it’s what you know, too.

The “too” at the end made the difference. While “what” absolutely is important in the technical arena, the Cluetrain Manifesto showed us that “who” can be even more important.

As a provider of technical knowledge TechNet tries the typical approach of making their stuff “the most important thing since …”.

What’s wrong with that you might ask? Well, to really show their class I think they should have acted differently. By wording their marketing piece differently they could have acknowledged that they understand the importance of the “conversation” - and at the same time underlined the importance of technical knowledge.

Let’s face it. With 95% of all jobs never advertised you need to know somebody. Without contacts you are stuck! Thus the importance of “who”. When you know somebody you have the possibility to get ahead - if you know “what”.

So, while Microsoft got both of the elements in their message, I think they should have stressed the overall importance of “who” much more, and then played the “what” card.

One possible option:

Networking expertise is important. It is who you know that might get you ahead!

Networking expertise is important. Do you know what to do to run your network properly?

Any other ideas? Suggestions welcome!

roar at roarweb dot com

The Cluetrain Manifesto showed us the reality of the Internet age. A reality where there are multiple conversations going and “Corporate” no longer is the only voice heard by the outside world.

In a web 2.0 world, employees talk about their employers, projects and products in a new way, as a direct voice to the customer, a voice that has not been polished by the corporate communications department.

In a web 2.o world, customers talk to each other. They share their knowledge about your company, your projects and your products. They do this in a human voice, giving their own opinion, in a direct conversation with the “outside world”.

We know that “Customer Experience is King “.. Since the overall customer experience is a product of all conversations a customer have with a company the Employee Experience is of importance too.

In a recent Harward Business School (HBS) article, researchers point out that how leaders keep the stated corporate values impacts their Employee Experience.

…employees also said that the worst thing about the company was that the CEO had been, from their point of view, breaching the values that he himself had developed for the company. Unwittingly, even a committed leader may appear to followers to be violating principles he or she has espoused.

It seems that in a web 2.0 world, less and less issues can be dealt with “offline” or at the “back-office”. Thus there are fewer opportunities for leaders to make silent adjustments. A web 2.0 age leader must show integrity by “walking the walk”. Anything else will soon impact the customer experience.

“Walking the walk” does not have to mean being nice to the customers. Ryanair is a good example. While notorious for poor service - one airline quality tracking site gets 35 negative comments per positive comment, there are those that feel they are getting good value from Ryanair’s extremely low prices.

The book Loyalty Myths has shown us that loyal happy employees does not necessarily mean loyal profitable customers. Still, all actions taken by the members of a company/organization have the power to impact someone else’s experience of the company/organization.

Service quality impression depends on our expectations. When we expect little, we seem to be satisfied with little. When a leader’s breach of corporate values impacts the conversations between the members of a company, the “press” and the customer, it impacts our expectations and then the overall interaction experience. Thus, as leaders we must strive to “walk the walk”, so we do not negatively impact the customer experience.

How does your company stack up?

roar at roarweb dot com

From Peppers & Rogers

Customer loyalty can be one of the most complex initiatives a company can take on. Customer value, behavioral data, and purchase data are just a few of the elements that need to be considered. But when it comes to online loyalty, customers are myopic. According to two recent studies, they care about one thing and one thing only: the customer experience.

Does your site/blog/e-mail deliver?

roar at roarweb dot com

I just forwarded an e-mail to “wafl AT phonebusters.com”. This is were I send copies of anything that looks like a Nigerian fraud letter.

Copies of Advanced Fee Letter Fraud (419 / West African / Nigerian Letters) should be emailed directly to: wafl AT phonebusters.com

I’m wondering if Phonebusters have been spammed?

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at phonebusters.com.
I’m afraid I wasn’t able to deliver your message to the following addresses. This is a permanent error; I’ve given up. Sorry it didn’t work out.

:
The quota has been exceeded for this account — mailbox full. (#4.3.0)

roar at roarweb dot com

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